"alinea restaurant" news and stories

For your ever-so-gently-surreal Thanksgiving viewing pleasure, Alinea's Grant Achatz breaks down and sous vides a turkey -- just like Grandma used to. No vacuum sealer or immersion circulator needed. Sadly, there's no nitrogen-blasted green bean casserole or marshmallow and yam alginate spheres on the menu this time, but hey -- there's always Christmas.

Watch Part 2 -- Sous Vide Stuffing and Deep-Fried Bourbon Pumpkin Pie on a Flaming Cinnamon Stick on YouTube and sign up for free recipes at alinea-mosaic.com.

You know the restaurant Alinea in Chicago, right? If you don't , well, where the hell have you been for the last year?!

We've seen photo reports before, we just can't get enough. Fatemah of San Francisco-based blog Gastronomie recently dined at Alinea and is taking her time posting about her experience there, with a an entire post dedicated to each course. The above is the first course of a warm potato (among other things) impaled on an acupuncture needle over a bowl of chilled potato soup. Pictures, of course, are beautiful, but her descriptions and reactions are fun to read, too.

Watch out Geroge Foreman - this anti-griddle will knock you out.

In the spirit of Grant Achatz's uber-technological cuisine, PolyScience has what they call the Anti-griddle, a cooktop that, instead of heating foods to cook, freezes them. The "cooking" surface can reach down to creativity-chilling -30F, freezing foods on contact. According to PolyScience, it allows imaginations create "tantalizing dual-textures [that] help satisfy increasing consumer demands for new dining experiences."

Not sure if this is something you'd want in your home kitchen, but if you're innovative enough, and you have $845, you just might.

[via BoingBoing]